What was the situation for that group/institution before Gorbachev became Premier?
Prior to Gorbachev’s reign as Premier, most are quick to call the Soviet government a totalitarian system, an ideology led by one dictator ruling by terror. In totalitarianism, the government has a monopoly on information and the economy. This description gained popularity for the Soviet Union under Stalin’s reign; however the government started to transform away from this system after Stalin. In the excerpt below, Mangesh Kulkarni describes how the government began to shift away from totalitarianism by underlying pluralism.
"However, Sovietologists soon realised that the theory was too wooden to serve as an analytical tool for explanation and prediction. It ignored several major contradictions within the system: centralised co-ordination of social transformation generates disorder, total congruence between the interests of the leadership and the party does not obtain for long, no system of governance, howsoever rational and elaborate, can ever exhaust or permanently control social reality. The theory failed to capture the system's dormant and incipient pluralism, its shift from arbitrary terror to the institutionalisation of norms, and the growing complexity of the policy process. Consequently, it could not anticipate the imminent Khrushchevian thaw."
However, totalitarianism still continued to coexist next to the new theories forming concerning the Soviet government. These theories outlined the Soviet Union as a society governed by a “self-appointed bureaucracy.” The totalitarian description was modified, though, by allowing for less terror and harshness and more rationality.
How did that group/institution interpret the application of those policies to it?
When Gorbachev became Premier, the economy of the Soviet Union was severely suffering following Brezhnev’s rule. In order to salvage this floundering economy, Gorbachev was forced to institute some radical reforms that would allow for more “openness” and “restructuring.” These reforms would cause the government to loosen its tight grip on society in the Soviet Union, allowing for more freedoms such as an augmented freedom of speech. These changes would cause the government, as it was understood, to move to a system of “socialist democracy” under the reform idea of democratizatsiya.
"Before 1985, the year in which he came to power, Gorbachev was one of the main architects of a new consensus in the upper party-echelons about the need for reforms. This consensus constituted Gorbachev's mandate, when he was elected Secretary-General of the CPSU. During Gorbachev's first year in office, the ideological course did not overstep the broad lines of the 'classic' communist ideology. Gradually, however, the consensus was extended and radicalized under the banner of a return to Lenin. This new course, aiming at "more socialism and more democracy," nevertheless turned out to be unable to produce profound changes on a macro-level. Therefore, from June 1988 on, new ideological options were taken. The system, as it existed, needed to be supplemented by certain liberal-democratic procedures."
Despite these broad calls for democratization and liberalization, Gorbachev never specified what he meant by this until a speech in 1988 that would outline his plans for the government in terms of reform. As far as the government was concerned, these broad terms democratization meant loosening it’s grip on society.
How did the Soviet state apply those policies to that group/institution, and what were the effects?
In June 1988, Gorbachev proposed solid reform policies for the Soviet political system at the Nineteenth Party Conference. In this speech, he emphasized the need for democratization as perestroika was being threatened by “zastoi” or stagnation. As a result, he stated that the soviets, local and national legislatures, must return and have exclusive control of local and national governments. He also stated that the Communist Party should be removed from governmental authority and that political and administrative power should be given to the state. In the end, the policies applied are summarized in the excerpt below:
"An effective economic reform of a planned economy requires, among other things, a drastic reduction in the size of the administering bureaucracy, a freer exchange of information, and the introduction of economic incentives tied to market conditions rather than to the dictates of local and national political officials. In other words, the power and privileges of a significant proportion of the party and state elite has to be reduced or eliminated. Gorbachev's reform plan centered on his proposal for a new law that would decentralize enterprises. It quickly sparked the opposition of those segments of the state and party hierarchy most likely to suffer from its adoption."
One of the effects of these policies was the shift to a pluralistic society as the Soviet Union became a multi-party system after 1990 and it held its first real elections in March 1989. Also, the powers of the Central Committee were limited as it lost the ability reject party leaders and was no longer the central forum for political discussion.
What was the significance of Gorbachev’s reforms as it pertained to that group/institution?
The significance of Gorbachev’s reforms for the Soviet government is that they eventually led to the disintegration the Soviet Union as a whole in 1991. Gorbachev’s reforms caused for the fall of the Soviet government as he implemented political reforms that did not agree with the political atmosphere of the time. His ideology can be summarized as stated in Brar’s “Assessing Gorbachev” below:
"In the end, Gorbachev stood all alone. He was a liberal whose hesitant, halting attitude towards 'reforms' had exasperated liberals long ago; he was a communist whose debilitating effect on the party and government had made communists extremely wary of him; he was a social democrat,whose ambivalent and contradictory attitude failed to create a dependable base for social democracy in a soil from which it had been uprooted long ago."
Gorbachev believed that democracy was an inherent part of socialism and that “‘democratic reforms [were] inherent in socialism.’” However, this view alienated many communist members, especially after he sought to remove the CSPU from government authority. His own beliefs about how much liberalism was needed in socialism did not agree with those in his party nor did it satisfy the liberals who believed it was not enough. Gorbachev dismantled the communist system that most people understood, in which there is one ruling party that has a monopoly of information and controls the economy. By doing this, he created chaos and instability within his country.
Works Cited
Brar, Bhupinder. "Assessing Gorbachev." Economic and Political Weekly 29.24 (1994): 1465-475. JSTOR. Web. 03 Mar. 2014. <http://www.jstor.org/stable/4401333>.
Casier, Tom. "The Shattered Horizon How Ideology Mattered to Soviet Politics." Studies in East European Thought 51.1 (1999): 35-59. JSTOR. Web. 03 Mar. 2014. <http://www.jstor.org/stable/20099693>.
Kulkarni, Mangesh. "Theories of the Soviet System: A Retrospective Critique." Economic and Political Weekly 29.31 (1994): 2036-039. JSTOR. Web. 03 Mar. 2014. <http://www.jstor.org/stable/4401562>.
Young, Christopher. "The Strategy of Political Liberalization: A Comparative View of Gorbachev's Reforms." World Politics 45.1 (1992): 47-65. JSTOR. Web. 3 Mar. 2014. <http://www.jstor.org/stable/2010518>.
Works Cited
Brar, Bhupinder. "Assessing Gorbachev." Economic and Political Weekly 29.24 (1994): 1465-475. JSTOR. Web. 03 Mar. 2014.
<http://www.jstor.org/stable/4401333>.
Casier, Tom. "The Shattered Horizon How Ideology Mattered to Soviet Politics." Studies in East European Thought 51.1 (1999): 35-59. JSTOR. Web. 03 Mar. 2014. <http://www.jstor.org/stable/20099693>.
Kulkarni, Mangesh. "Theories of the Soviet System: A Retrospective Critique." Economic and Political Weekly 29.31 (1994): 2036-039. JSTOR. Web. 03 Mar. 2014. <http://www.jstor.org/stable/4401562>.
Young, Christopher. "The Strategy of Political Liberalization: A Comparative View of Gorbachev's Reforms." World Politics 45.1 (1992): 47-65. JSTOR. Web. 3 Mar. 2014. <http://www.jstor.org/stable/2010518>.